AP: Review Finds AIDS Agency 'Troubled'

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=906064

AP: Review Substantiates Concerns Over Inappropriate Conduct at U.S.
AIDS Research Agency

By JOHN SOLOMON Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON Jul 3, 2005 — The government's AIDS research agency "is a
troubled organization" and its managers have engaged in unnecessary
feuding, sexually explicit language and other inappropriate conduct
that hampers its global fight against the disease, an internal review
found.

The review for the National Institutes of Health director's office,
obtained by The Associated Press, substantiates many of the concerns
that whistle-blower Dr. Jonathan Fishbein raised about the agency's
AIDS research division and its senior managers.

The division suffers from "turf battles and rivalries between
physicians and Ph.D scientists" and the situation has been "rife for
too long," the report concluded.

Nonetheless, the NIH formally fired Fishbein on Friday, over the
objections of several members of Congress. The top Republican and
Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee are protesting, saying the
firing was an example of whistle-blower punishment.

"Retaliation against an employee for reporting misconduct or voicing
concerns is unacceptable, illegal and violates the Whistleblower
Protection Act," Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Max Baucus, D-
Mont., wrote the NIH late last week.

"Moreover, it would have a chilling effect on other NIH employees who
might makes truthful but critical comments about the NIH," the
senators said.

Citing personnel privacy, NIH officials declined to address the
senators' letter or Fishbein's termination, except to say that his
last day was Friday. In the past, NIH officials have said they were
terminating Fishbein for poor performance.

Fishbein, an accomplished private sector safety expert, was hired by
the NIH in 2003 to improve the safety of its AIDS research.

He alleges that he was let go because he raised concerns about
several studies and filed a formal complaint against one of the
division's managers alleging sexual harassment and hostile workplace.

In a series of recent stories, the AP has reported:

One of NIH's AIDS study in Africa violated federal safety
regulations.

Senior NIH managers engaged in sexually explicit pranks and sent
expletive-laced e-mails to subordinates.

NIH-funded researchers used foster children to test AIDS drugs since
the late 1980s.

An internal report, written on Aug. 9, 2004, by a special adviser to
NIH chief Elias A. Zerhouni but never made public, raised concerns
that the NIH's efforts to fire Fishbein at the very least gave
the "appearance of reprisal."

The report says no documentation was ever provided to Fishbein
suggesting poor performance until after he complained about the
safety in one sensitive AIDS study and filed a formal complaint
alleging that the division's deputy director was acting
unprofessionally with subordinates.

The report said after formally complaining about conduct of the
deputy director, Dr. Jonathan Kagan, Fishbein was inexplicably forced
to begin reporting to Kagan, who then went ahead with efforts to fire
Fishbein.

The report said Kagan and the division's director, Dr. Edmund
Tramont, acknowledged that Kagan "uses sexually explicit and colorful
language, saying that no one ever complained until" Fishbein did.

The report broadly condemns the NIH's Division of AIDS.

"It is clear that DAIDS is a troubled organization," the report
concluded, saying the Fishbein case "is clearly a sketch of a deeper
issue."

"To have the senior management … behave in this manner, spend
incredible amounts of time feuding, and writing numerous long e-mails
while seemingly unaware of the need for appropriate behavior decorum
and enforcement of good management practices and the rules of
supervision and concerns about appearance of reprisal clearly
indicate a serious problem," the report said.

Fishbein's lawyer, Stephen M. Kohn, said Friday he had not seen the
report obtained by the AP, but he hailed its conclusions.

"NIH's internal admissions are unprecedented and damning. Dr.
Fishbein was right. NIH must fix its troubled management and stop
harassing the whistle-blowers," Kohn said.

The report, however, also criticized Fishbein, citing some of his
supervisors' statements that he did not take enough time to adapt to
the "culture" of the AIDS division before making sweeping changes to
improve the agency's research safety.

"It seems apparent that both sides behaved badly, that a new senior
employee did not orient himself about the division and that the most
senior people engaged in inappropriate behavior," the report said.

The report urged the NIH to require sensitivity training for its
senior managers and provide instruction about "inappropriate
personnel procedures."


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